Does urbanization intensify carbon emissions in Nigeria?

Abstract

This study examines the urbanization and CO2 emissions nexus in Nigeria using the Autoregressive Distributed Lag (ARDL) method to analyze the annual time series data spanning from 1974 to 2015. Findings suggest that urbanization, GDP, energy use, and carbon emissions are strongly and positively correlated, while trade and carbon emissions exhibit a weak and negative correlation. The ARDL result shows a negatively significant short-term and long-term connection between urbanization and carbon emission in the Nigerian economy. In the short-term, GDP, trade and energy use positively affect carbon emission while in the long-term, trade and GDP negatively affect carbon emissions with energy use having a positive impact on carbon emissions. The study, therefore, concludes that urbanization does not cause carbon emission to rise in Nigeria, but energy use does. From the findings, it was recommended that there is a need for the use of energy-saving and environmentally friendly technology to reduce the amount of carbon emission in the economy.